Augustus reached for his cutlass.
Chapter
Thirty-One
“Say nothing.”
It’d been two days since Shadi bent over Kai’s bed in Quiet Rock following the aftermath of the attack.
“Let everyone see your patience and trust. I must act quickly.”Her mother had started to leave her side, then paused and cupped Kai’s head. “Brightest star, you have made me most proud.”
That was the last time Kai saw her mother.
Then, earlier, when leaving her healing bed, her father whispered a cryptic message: “Let Atsadi lead the way.”
That is how she and Fala came to follow Atsadi’s flame through eerily silent pathways. They were now covered in layers of so much dust that the natural bioluminescence was nearly absent. The occasional drip of water echoed down unseen passageways.
Low, arching beams of wood and iron lined the walls, though they were weathered and cracked. What symbols had once been carved with love into the walls were now barely legible.
Fala leaned toward Kai to whisper, “These were Iron Willow tunnels.”
Twelfth Clan was one of the lost clans that specialized in resource renewal. Much of their job had been allocated to the healers of Quiet Rock. They once farmed the underground gardens and provided herbs for healing and nutrition.
Atsadi ducked beneath the low hang of thick, rotting roots that dangled from a crack in the ceiling. “Not much farther.”
“Where is he taking us?” Fala asked.
Kai shrugged. “I have no idea.”
The dense air smelled like damp earth and rot, tinged by the lingering bitterness of herbs long past their use.
A central room opened up to them, and scattered throughout were broken pots and the remnants of rusted, cracked tools, half-buried in loose earth.
Atsadi entered another corridor. “I have been coming here for years,” he said over his shoulder. “Usti and the others won’t suspect anything. They think I’m finally revealing my gift to you.”
Fala flashed Kai a look of surprise. “Gift?”
“It isn’t finished, but when Shadi was looking for a place to hold the foreigner in secret, I suggested this.”
Kai’s attention perked at the revelation of information. “Which foreigner?”
Atsadi paused to glance over his shoulder. “The military commander. No one knows he lived.”
The pieces started falling into place. “My mother doesn’t trust Inola Rising Moon to keep the commander’s existence from Usti.”
“No. She doesn’t.” Atsadi started walking again. “You were right to spare him; none of his men know anything useful. They want the mountain, but they don’t know why. And they’re Perean.”
Kai didn’t want to think about what it meant for her mother to trust Atsadi with any information, let alone something as important as this.
Fala took a half-step closer to their husband. “This man is here?”
“Yes. No one ever comes to these tunnels,” he said. “It seemed the right answer at the time.”
“No one comes here except you,” Kai said.
He nodded. “I started roaming these halls as a youngling. My mother has a great mind for architecture and used these halls to demonstrate older techniques. She taught me to appreciate our history of craftsmanship and the necessity of thinking carefully about applying the ways of our past to our future.”
“What does your father do?” Fala asked.
